1. The common council or similar legislative body of each city having a population of less than one hundred seventy-five thousand which has not by special law established a department of health, is hereby authorized and empowered by ordinance to abolish its board of health and in its place to create, establish and maintain a department of public health. 2. The commissioner of health in cities having a population of fifty thousand to one hundred seventy-five thousand, and the health officer in cities having a population of less than fifty thousand shall be the head of such department.
New York Legal Code